Errr, at the mo shooting and field craft are the things I look forward to the most, due to lack of more practical aviation training. Especially during summer months with wing and region skills week, it’s mainly the shooting and field craft that sells it to most cdts, at least on my sqn. Also full bore is fun.
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We didn’t do fieldcraft in early 1980s ATC, and it didn’t put anyone off joining. Not when we could go gliding or .22in rifle shooting every weekend. You get taught fieldcraft in the Army or RAF when you join, anyway.
During this time my dad had 6 glider flights over 3 years. This was being part of Aberystwyth sqn, being one of the most remote sqns save for those in north Scotland that are still mainland UK. Meanwhile I’ve been in cadets nearing 5 years, in one of the larger wings (to my knowledge), and I haven’t been gliding once. When cadets joined and said they wanted to fly, they actually got to fly…
Obviously some of this is due to COVID, and partly due to the temporary hanger at Ternhill having a dead possum moment, but surely this is degrading Cdt experience and retention, especially for those who dont stay on the bench and NCO/snco etc. although I will stop rabbiting on as ive strayed a bit from the thread topic.
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Not much of a thread drift, more of an examination of the State of the Nation upon the departure of its Commandant. Leaders of organisations have to be judged on their achievements during their tenure. He was getting a full-time wage for being in charge, after all. 
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AEF/Initial flying training already has been outsourced by the MoD to Babcock, so all the RAFAC need to do is get out bookings in before the regular armed forces do. Our money is as good as anyone’s! 
I’m trying to get the air cadets to stop spreading themselves too thinly by prioritising time, money and resources to those areas which meet our aims as an organisation and what we can not only budget for but what we are able to do.
So if AEF and AEG are impossible to do in any useful way, and full-bore shooting and fieldcraft can be done, we should therefore bin the flying and concentrate on all trades airfield defence.
This would mean that all squadrons would have to have DP service rifles, small arms and fieldcraft instructors, in order for it to be fair for everyone.
However, cadets still need their own form of Basic and Trade Training, so we would still have to do a variant of Classification Training, which would include firearms and fieldcraft, some of which is done in a classroom. 
Babcock contract is to supply and maintain the aircraft,flying is still vis the FTS and DH. When you saud outsourcing it was a reasonable assumption that it meant buying airtime from another provide such as local flying club, which i dont think will happen as discussed earlier. Unfortunately its eggs in one basket
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This thread is drifting so much that I’m starting to feel I’m driving a Supra through Tokyo with Vin Diesel.
It doesn’t matter if you drift by an inch or a mile, drifting’s drifting!
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By that logic no need for AEF, as you do basic flying training in the Forces 
or indeed anything else we deliver or teach really!
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The current state of the RAFAC is all discussed here
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Email from OC Middlesex confirming officially that the Commandant is going in September
Still heard nothing here, other than the LinkedIn post.
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This sums up the role. Dawn was able to make reasonable changes because of how long she was in post but e en then she wasn’t able to change due to the bureaucratic inertia of the organisation.
It also helped that Dawn was a personnel officer so understood more about the people/volunteer management side.
It is not enough for the person at the top be the fixer.
They can only create the environment & in a volunteer organisation where some are Cold War warriors it takes a long time to change.
The only other way would be a board sweep & clear the decks such as moving HQAC from cranwell to cosford & have all the RCs & CoS reapply.
I think part of the issue with keeling was the type of engineer that he was.
Aviation engineers tend to be very precise will low deviation permitted & a low risk threshold.
Electrical or system engineers look at the flow of things & how things interact holistically which is more of what we need that the “if it’s not safe it doesn’t fly mindset.
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So thinking about this - what trade/branch that the new commandant comes from do we think would bring the most Benefit?
Flying - would understand Ops & Whitehall bureaucracy & could re focus the syllabus.
Personnel - understanding on how volunteers works & smooth the ruffled feathers (but may not be brutal to stand up to people).
Engineer - depends on the engineer but could get the complex machine working again
Regiment - we may get MTP issued?
Intelligence - may be able deal with all the background politics?
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ZD 576 and safety comes to mind.
I can think of a current station commander who is both an ex-cadet and ex-CFAV, employed in this branch.
Ticking both boxes should put him in good stead, if it’s something he wants. He’s also been very engaged with cadet events at his station.
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Well, we’ve had ‘official’ comms now saying he’s leaving in Sep, “having achieved most of what he set out to do”.
I would be intrigued to see what those goals were, and how they have been met?
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Give him a tap up.
I think the intelligence branch is the area of the RAF that the air cadets most ignore so an a commandant from that area would be good to have.
Intel types also tend to be out the box thinkers so someone who can manage people with that mindset would be very useful for stabilising the ship.
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Would that box be their office? Is it also the box they keep their opinions? And perhaps the one where their understanding of the front line might as well be The Beano?
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Well if they think the Air Cadets are akin to the Bash Street Kids they wouldn’t be far off 
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